How The Morph Was Born

Nate Lawrie

December 07, 2015

We open the door to our extended stay hotel and see a bottle of cheap sparkling wine and some chocolate covered strawberries. We laughed. True, my wife and I had just gotten married a few days earlier. She thought it would be funny to call and tell the hotel we were on our honeymoon. In a way it was, but Spokane was not our first choice for our after-nuptial excursion. We were here for another reason altogether.

I had just finished my 3rd year in the NFL, and I was recovering from my 3rd surgery in 5 years. This time it was my spine. I had herniated two lumbar discs playing for the Saints. I first felt a twinge of low-back pain coming out of training camp and fought through it as long as I could. I made it 2.5 months. The years of pounding I put on my body finally caught up with me. For weeks I had slept on the living room floor, because it was the only surface hard enough. Then I would get up, scarf painkillers, and go into the Saints’ facility. I wasn’t going to let pain get in the way of my dreams. I’d go into the training room, lie to the coaches and trainers that my back was feeling better, and go out and grit through practices and games. It wasn’t sustainable. As the Saints went on to the NFC Championship game that year, lifting the organization and the Katrina devastated city from despair, I was laying at home recovering from back surgery, wondering if I’d play another down of football.

A couple of months later, I found myself in Spokane just days after getting married. I went to meet with some non-conventional physical therapists. One was a renowned Pilates guru that taught me how a simple foam roller could help to fix and maintain my back. I’d used the foam roller many times before, but now I was a devotee. A couple simple stretches, some stabilizing ab work, and a few minutes massaging was all I needed to add to my routine to get my focus back on football and not on recovery. I played 5 more seasons and I used the foam roller the entire way.

But my relationship with the foam roller was love-hate. Foam rollers are bulky and annoying to carry around. I wanted something that I could take with me; whether it was to an away-game, the gym, or when I was traveling around the globe with my wife in the offseason. The idea for The Morph was born and I set out to create the worlds best foam roller.

The Morph was inspired by a personal wish, but it didn’t take me long to realize that this product could be a great tool for anyone looking to increase their mobility and live a healthier life. It is my goal and dream for The Morph to become the most relied self-maintenance tool for athletes, fitness enthusiast, and mobility seekers.

I’m impassioned to help people accomplish their fitness goals through innovative, high-quality, and convenient products. The Morph emphatically meets all three criteria, but if you think of this product as nothing else, think of it as a foam roller (that works just like the ones you’ve seen at the gym), but when you’re not using it, it takes up a fraction of the space. Trust me, when you fall in love with foam rolling (which you will), this is a feature you will be thrilled to have.